Gyms reopening after nearly two month mandated shutdown

PONTOTOC, MISS. (WCBI) – More businesses throughout Mississippi were able to open their doors after nearly two months because of a mandated shutdown over COVID-19.

300 Fitness opened its doors Monday morning, and business was steady as members were ready to get back into the gym.

It is the first time Dustin Talley has been in the gym in seven weeks.

“We’re kind of getting back to normalcy,” Talley said.

Talley was one of the first members at 300 Fitness and was glad when Governor Tate Reeves allowed gyms and salons to re open .

300 Fitness co owner Wesley Bray says the governor’s mandate to close gyms and other so called non essential businesses has caused a lot of hardship. In fact, Bray opened 300 Gym two weeks ago, but shut it back down after he was cited by the police for defying an executive order.

Bray says small business owners care about their customers safety and health, but they also have to pay their bills and provide for their families.

“You have to have common sense about things, you’re more likely to die in a car wreck than something from this virus, it’s something we definitely want to keep everybody’s health in mind and keep everybody safe but it is something to where you reach a point of where the cure is sometimes worse than the problem,” Bray said.

Talley said he appreciates social distancing guidelines and extensive cleaning at 300 Fitness and he also hopes government leaders will learn from this experience.

“We’ve learned you can’t shut the state down for six to eight weeks, we have to regroup and come up with a plan, that if this does happen again, we have a plan in place we can attack this and make it safe for everybody,” Talley said.

Bray is optimistic that support will be strong for 300 Fitness and other local small businesses as the economy opens back up.

Bray had to lay off some employees as the shutdown was extended but they are fully staffed now.